In the NAIRR Pilot, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Department of Energy (DOE), and numerous private and non-profit sector partners are providing an opportunity for the research community to request access to a set of computing, model, platform and educational resources for projects related to advancing AI research. This call for proposals will be open from May 6, 2024, until the end of the NAIRR Pilot program or until all resources have been committed to projects. Projects will be awarded for twelve (12) months duration.
Eligibility
This call is open to meritorious proposals by US-based researchers and educators from US-based institutions including academic institutions (including graduate students with a support letter from a faculty advisor), non-profits, federal agencies or federally funded R&D centers, state, local, or tribal agencies, startups and small businesses with federal grants. However, the individual resources available via this call may have differing eligibility rules. Assignment of supported proposals will be guided by these constraints.
Note that the email address you provide must be your institutional email. Requests providing personal email addresses such as “.gmail.com” addresses will not be considered.
Focus Areas
This call for allocation requests encompasses projects covering any of the following cross-cutting focus areas:
- Advancing AI methods that enable scientific discovery and improve AI interpretability, security and trust.
- Accelerating time to science and innovation through AI enabled automation, autonomy and novel design and control processes.
- Applying AI to use, share, or integrate sensitive data from multiple sources to enable new experimental methods and discovery.
- Advancing approaches for integrating simulations and AI.
- Creating or developing open-source AI tools, models, datasets, and methods.
- Training and educating the next generation AI-savvy workforce.
Other projects that align with the broader objectives of the NAIRR Pilot, as well as projects in other areas of AI research and applications, may secondarily be considered for allocation.
Available Resources
The set of resources available through the NAIRR Pilot has been expanded to include additional resources funded by federal agencies as well as resources contributed by private and non-profit sector partners. Over time, we expect new resources will be added to the NAIRR Pilot, and some resources may be removed from the pilot as their available contributions are committed to projects.
Researchers are strongly encouraged to review the most up-to-date list of resources, which will always be available via the NAIRR Pilot Resource Catalog.
Note that some resources contributed to the NAIRR Pilot, such as pre-trained models, datasets, and relevant platforms, may be accessible to researchers and educators without the need for a proposal. For details, see this full list of pilot resources.
Expectations of Projects
All persons submitting proposals should note the following parameters and expectations:
- Because of the strong public component of the NAIRR, all project results must be open and publishable. Teams who receive NAIRR Pilot access are expected to publish their results in the open scientific literature or otherwise disseminate publically, and to make all project products publically available, to the extent possible. The NAIRR Pilot wishes to catalyze open, pre-competitive results that can impact the future of the NAIRR.
- If a PI believes that a project will result in commercializable intellectual property (IP), the PI should discuss directly with the assigned resource provider to determine if commercialized IP requirements can be accommodated.
- NAIRR Pilot projects are intended to be completed within twelve (12) months. Projects with longer-term timelines should complete a support request to be referred to existing proposal and allocation opportunities.
- All supported projects will have the name of the principal investigator (PI), their affiliation, the project title, and project abstract posted on the NAIRR Pilot website.
- All project PIs will be added to a NAIRR Pilot mailing list to foster a community of NAIRR Pilot researchers.
- Project PIs are expected to provide brief (2–3 paragraphs) project updates 1 month and 6 months into the project, and a final report (three pages) upon project completion.
- For reporting purposes, the NAIRR Pilot collects information about how all participants use NAIRR Pilot-allocated resources. Usage information is collected initially by individual Resource Providers, which in turn share it centrally with the NAIRR Pilot. The NAIRR Pilot may share this usage information, typically in aggregate form but potentially unfiltered, with funding agencies and researchers.
- All supported projects not making full use of their allocations in a timely manner may be subject to reductions in their allocations in accordance with the NAIRR Pilot Allocation Management Policy
- Instructions for NAIRR Pilot Project allocation awardees: Guidance on reporting for your project
Proposal Instructions
Proposals require completing a form and uploading a three-page PDF proposal. See proposal preparation instructions and expectations.
As part of the process of completing the form, researchers should include information about funding grants directly supporting,related, or adjacent to the proposed research. Proposals for research activities without merit-reviewed support will be accepted, but will be subject to additional review regarding the scientific merit of the work.
Proposal Evaluation
Proposals will be accepted starting May 6, 2024, through the end of the NAIRR Pilot program or until all available resources have been committed to projects.
All proposals will be evaluated by independent peer reviewers for scientific and technical appropriateness and feasibility. Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Alignment with the NAIRR Pilot focus areas;
- Project readiness and potential for near-term progress;
- Feasibility of the technical approach;
- Need for the computing, support, or other resources available in the NAIRR Pilot;
- Knowledge and experience of the proposing team related to the proposed work; and
- Estimated resource requirements and justification
After completion of the independent review process, proposals will be matched to the appropriate resource through matching committees. All partners, including non-governmental partners will have a representative on a relevant matching committee to assure the proposal is a strong match for their contributed resource and will be able to see reviews of proposals in their resource category. All reviewers and members of matching committees will be subject to a confidentiality agreement that prohibits sharing review and/or proposal content. Note, if a researcher does not wish their proposal to be viewed by a non-governmental partner, they should choose only government agency resources and check the box indicating they do not wish their submission to be viewed by non-government resource providers. Note that this could limit the ability to match a proposal to resources.
Proposal Submission and Review
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the NAIRR Pilot submission site.
Proposals will be reviewed on an ongoing monthly cycle. Typically, requests submitted by the 15th of the month will be reviewed and have their outcome decided by the end of the following month. Projects will be awarded for twelve (12) months duration.